In November 2023, China’s technology news headlines captured a wide range of items, including developments in: the ‘digital yuan, China’s digital currency; China’s fast-moving space launch and satellite systems; the country’s challenges, and achievements, in semiconductor manufacturing; China’s electric cars and batteries industries; and many more.
And, for other editions, take a look at Asia’s tech news, daily, delivered via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter/X, and our Indo-Pacific tech newsletters for a weekly email on Asia’s tech scene.
Also available is our November collection of technology-specific news items, covering semiconductors, critical minerals, space launch & satellite technologies.
CSIS: China’s progress towards space resilience and responsive launch
- China’s Tsingshan preps for $233M investment in Chilean mining firm SQM, gaining access to 11,244 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate at a preferential price until 2030
- China: Tencent implements Hunyuan AI model in over 180 services as Baidu and Alibaba competition heats up, with likely goal of making AI a core feature across all its products
- China: Didi Chuxing ride-share giant unveils service allowing citizens in 250 areas to use ‘digital yuan’ CBDC to rent motorcycles via app-run sharing service
“Users in the pilot zone will now be able to choose the e-CNY as a payment option in the Didi Chuxing app, as well as launching quick CBDC payment options on mobile widgets when hiring motorbikes.”
- ICYMI: Canadian state officials banned from use of China’s WeChat and Russian Kaspersky antivirus on gov’t-issued mobile devices due to ‘unacceptable’ privacy and security risks
- China: WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Baidu, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili and other tech majors now display real names and info for accounts with over 500K followers under gov’t mandate to curb anonymity
Fragmenting Cyberspace: The future of the internet in China
- China: CATL, world’s largest battery maker, unveils new base with assembly lines claiming production of 1 battery cell per second, and entire EV battery pack in under 3 mins
- China’s space-tech moves: “By offering the chance to win missions from the space agency, China is pursuing a strategy used by NASA with Mr Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp…”
- “Yangtze Memory Technologies Co, China’s largest memory chip maker, has had to appeal for new funding after burning through cash reserves in its efforts to adapt to sanctions…”
“Qatar’s state-owned energy firm has entered into a 27-year sales and purchase agreement with China Petrochemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, to supply 3 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually.”
- China: Xiaomi launches its own cross-device HyperOS, aiming for a single, unified platform for all products; Huawei continues detaching HarmonyOS from Android
- A look at China’s initial roaring successes, and more recent mounting challenges, in bitcoin mining
- China: 01AI unveils Yi-34B large language AI model, founded by Kai-Fu Lee, former head of Google in China and co-chair of World Economic Forum AI Council
- China: “…firms such as Huawei and Tencent accounted for 6 of the top 10 global patent holdings in the cybersecurity technology sector… registered across 95 countries and regions.”
- China: iSpace completes the country’s first reusable rocket test, performing a 50-second ‘hop’, with the first stage of the launch vehicle running on methane and liquid oxygen mix
McKinsey & Co: The economic potential of artificial intelligence
- China: Space Pioneer commercial launch firm announces new funding round for development of Tianlong-3 rocket, broadly comparable to SpaceX Falcon 9
- China to place Queqiao-2 sat in lunar orbit using Long March 8 rocket in early 2024, a 1200kg satellite with a lifespan of 8+ years, to facilitate communications for future moon missions
- China: Huawei unveils 5.5G router, LampSite X, claiming data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps and with sights on consumer, industrial and business district settings
- China: Importers & exporters must now report transactions, orders and shipments of rare earths, oxide products, crude oil, iron ore, copper ore concentrates, potash fertilisers and more
- ICYMI: Thunes, Singapore B2B payments major serving Uber, Deliveroo and others, inks cross-border digital yuan cooperation deal with China Construction Bank
Lithium mining in Tibet: Impact on Tibet and Tibetans
- ICYMI: PetroChina became first company to complete international crude oil trade using China’s CBDC, acquiring 1M barrels with digital yuan, although transaction value and seller were not disclosed
- China: SMIC, the country’s largest chipmaker, posted a 80% profit drop in Q3 profits, tho income still reached $94M
“The 44 fabs currently operated by Chinese companies exclude seven sites where construction is temporarily suspended. The 44 comprise 25 fabs at 300mm, 4 fabs in 6-inch wafers, and 15 fabs for 200mm wafers. The 22 under construction are 14 for 300mm wafers and 8 for 200mm wafers. The 10 wafer fabs in planning are all for 300mm wafers except one.”
“…by the end of 2024, China is aiming to establish 32 large fabs, and all of them are about to focus on relatively mature processes.”
- “China claims to have launched the world’s first ultra-high-speed next-generation Internet backbone with a bandwidth of 1,200 GB per second (1.2 Terrabytes)…”
- China: First of a new series of Haiyang ocean monitoring satellites entered orbit, adding to capabilities in observation across environmental factors, and also marine navigation
- China Unicom, State Grid Shandong and Huawei unveil 5G RedCap project built on network slicing, allowing end-to-end use of ‘slices’ of the network by particular applications
- China: SophGo chip-maker developes high-performance RISC-V chips based on designs from US firm, SiFive, with Shandong University successfully deploying a Sophgo RISC-V server
The Outlaw Ocean Project: Human rights, environment, food supply…
- China’s Boyaa Interactive gaming firm, listed on HK Stock Exchange, looking to buy $100M in cryptocurrencies, constituting near 38% of firm’s total assets, to deepen Web3 activities
- China: Gov’t declares that theft of digital collections including NFTs will now be subject to theft sentences, marking policy shift towards legally aligning digital assets with tangible property
- China: Huawei and Chery automaker unveil Luxeed S7 electric vehicle, setting the stage for competition with Tesla
- China: Alibaba walks back IPO plans to spin off and list $11BN cloud business, in the process dropping an estimated $22BN in share value
- ‘Bolstering and Securing Semiconductor Supply Chains’, a study from the National Bureau of Asian Research, focusing on Japan, the United States and China
World Economic Forum: Markets of Tomorrow Report
- China: Rokid augmented reality firm raised $112M at a $1BN valuation with AR hardware and software, and plans for gaming, education and metaverse-focused growth
- “China’s broadcasting regulator is looking to tighten control over the growing short web drama market – including a sweeping review of each series’ cast, production, marketing and social values…”
- China Mobile to debut commercial 5G messaging in December, based on RCS and capable of video, image and voice in step up from SMS and MMS services
- State-run China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund invested $1.99BN in Changxin Xinqiao chip-maker with stated focus on DRAM and 12-inch wafer design and manufacture
“Shanghai is aiming to foster a complete industrial chain for commercial rocket production, with an annual production capacity of 50 commercial rockets and 600 commercial satellites by 2025…”
- China: PonyAI gains first license in Guangzhou for on-road formation testing of groups of PonyTron autonomous trucks
- China: 3-year plan unveiled to develop Guangdong into ‘Digital Bay Area’, pooling manufacturing, trade and tech within the Greater Bay Area in bid to boost self-sufficiency
- China’s Gotion and Slovakia’s InoBat ink MOU to build Slovakia EV battery plant
- China: Landspace announces plans for reusable stainless steel launch vehicle, Zhuque-3, using methane-liquid oxygen propellant rocket engines
Huawei’s 5G chip:
“He explained that the designing of 5G chips is not necessarily difficult for Chinese researchers and companies, so it wouldn’t have been that hard for Huawei to create a 5G chip in the lab. What is much harder is mass-producing a 5G chip at great quality and reasonable costs so it can be used in a consumer product.”
“…industry was surprised by how quickly it had been able to turn around a design, shift to a Chinese fab, manufacture the new chip, and get it to production rate…”
- China: Recent launches found to contain multiple satellite payloads, with no details beyond ‘experiment satellite for satellite internet technologies’
- China: Africa-based Wicrypt, enabling users to share and monetise Wi-Fi using blockchain tech and NFTs, to enter China market via partnership with Singapore’s Onega Ventures
- NVIDIA has delayed China launch of new sanctions-safe AI chip until Q1 2024, citing integration challenges
- Crypto: Bridge mechanism connecting China’s HTX exchange, formerly Huobi, and Ethereum was breached, leading to the loss of $87M in crypto assets
- China: Huawei partners Changan carmaker to establish R&D company in design and sales of intelligent auto systems and component solutions
NBR: China’s Emerging Capabilities in Cyber, Space & Autonomous Systems
- Chinese-owned Nexperia chip-maker to acquire Dutch semiconductor firm following Netherlands gov’t approval, gaining chips using ambient electricity sources such as light as a power source
- China: Alibaba cuts quantum computing laboratory and team from research arm, donating lab and experimental equipment to Zhejiang University
- Cambodia: “Two prominent Chinese government hacking groups are targeting at least 24 Cambodian government organizations through cloud backup services, according to a new report.”
“Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim said that [China’s] Geely will invest around $10BN in…Tanjung Malim, in the state of Perak… will transform Tanjung Malim into an ‘automotive high-tech valley.'”
- Digital yuan enters Taiwan with locally-based firm issuing ‘ultra-short-term financing bonds’, launched by Xiamen Xiangyu Group and underwritten by China’s state-owned Industrial Bank
- “Meta Platforms struck a deal with Tencent Holdings to sell a new, low-cost virtual-reality (VR) headset in China in a return to a market where Facebook and Instagram are blocked…”
- Singapore: dtcpay to launch system using fiat and crypto for in-store and online payments, partnering China’s PlatON and Allinpay Int’l for blockchain, terminals and interfacing
- Available now: “Relying on old enemies – The challenge of Taiwan’s economic ties to China”, a report from the Atlantic Council
- Cambodia: National Bank inks MOU with China’s Alipay+ enabling KHWR payments via the Bakong CBDC system to merchants using the global Alipay network
Europe: PRC United Front Targets the Semiconductor Sector
Indo-Pacific Technology news
All-day tech news updates from across the broad – and increasingly strategically and technologically important – Indo-Pacific region, and across South and Southeast Asia:
- Indo-Pacific tech news, daily on Twitter
- Asia’s tech news, daily on Facebook
- Indo-Pacific technology, daily on LinkedIn
Note: Our mobile app is currently offline, due to the ongoing devolution of what was Twitter, now X. We aim to have the app back online with a much-improved interface and broader functionality in Q1 of 2024.
World Economic Forum: Space Applications in Agriculture
Indo-Pacific tech newsletters
Our weekly email newsletters go out on Substack and LinkedIn, providing readers with an at-a-glance grasp of the week’s technology news from the Indo-Pacific and Asia.
